I guess it depends on what Jim's aims for this season are, getting rid of ETH now is very short term thinking, and may be premature until Brailsford and co. have undertaken a full assessment of the club.
If they are to ditch ETH then it needs to be done with a plan of who they need and what infrastructure they need moving forward over several years.
So "dire" might just mean cannot put up with it until the end of the season, this guy is going to get us relegated
after all look how Ragnick did as caretaker when everyone only knew he was there for 6 months.
In 6 months time if ETH has continued to fail then it will be easier to justify getting rid, probably cheaper too and by then there should be a plan for top to bottom within the club.
However in terms of dire.... the football is dire, the tactics are dire, watching utd right now makes me feel dire.... but I would rather they take their time and get things right, so unless they already have ETH's successor lined up write off another season and hope for the next